A few months ago I was contacted by the Cyrenians (http://www.cyrenians.org.uk/) and asked to complete a survey about a composting social enterprise they are looking to set up. Yesterday they sent me the details as they stand and asked for more feedback. The details are below, but basically, once/week pickup would cost £16.71, including rental of wheelie bin, containers for the kitchen and bin liners.

We have what looks to be a thriving compost heap out back, but I am only adding raw fruit/veg scraps, coffee grinds, tea leaves and old flowers. With the Cyrenians we would be composting all organic waste (bread, scraps from unfinished meals, cheese, etc). This would of course be great.

Also, I was thinking that maybe a few people who are unable to compost at home might like to buy into getting their compost picked up at Forest? We could charge a small fee for this to help offset our costs (I don't think we'll use 50kg/week). Or, we could even look into the City of Edinburgh Waste Action grant
(http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/En ... nt/Rubbish _waste_and_recycling/Rubbish_and_waste/Waste_Aware_Edinburgh/CEC_waste_action_grant_programme)
in order to create a central pick up point for composting? I'm not sure of the legalities on that one, but it would be worth talking to the Cyrenians about it as they've already done the research on pickups/transport/etc,

1.Cyrenians Social Enterprise will provide wheelie bins to the customer (120, 240 or 660 litre) in a suitable number and combination as required by the customer. Edinburgh Cyrenians Social Enterprise will also provide kitchen caddies and a yearly provision of biodegradable caddy bin liners (5 x 52 weeks).

2.The wheelie bins provided should only be used to dispose of the waste materials as indicated below:

b)The following MATERIALS must not be disposed of with catering or food waste: plastic, packaging, cutlery, tins, glass or any other not organic material.

c)Food and catering waste left in bags, boxes, loose, etc. next or nearby the bins will not be collected.

d)An additional charge will be applied should the degree of contamination should result too high for processing the waste.

3.The food waste bins will be collected by vehicles fully licensed to transport and dispose Animal by-Product wastes at a weekly frequency which will be agreed between the customer and Edinburgh Cyrenians Social Enterprise.

4.Frequency and method of payment of the service will also be agreed between the customer and Edinburgh Cyrenians Social Enterprise.

5.Waste Transfer Notes will be issued once payments are received by Edinburgh Cyrenians Social Enterprise.

PROPOSED PRICING SCHEDULE

The number of wheelie bins assigned to the customer, the logistics and the weekly frequency of collections will have to be discussed and agreed with the customer prior to the beginning of the service.
An indication of the weekly charge of the service, inclusive of wheelie bin/s and kitchen caddy rental, gate and uplift fees but not inclusive of VAT is based on the size and number of bins utilised by the customer and the frequency of the collections required as specified below.

Number of Weekly Collections 1-5

120 litre bin (max 50 kg)
£16.71
£26.77
£36.83
£46.90
£56.96

240 litre bin (max 100 kg)
£27.55
£42.65
£57.74
£72.83
£87.92

660 litre bin (max 260 kg)
£71.62
£107.58
£143.55
£179.52
£215.49

SOME IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS

Before you give us your comments, we would like you to consider the following reasons for joining our proposed scheme:

REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINTS: All the food and catering waste collected from your premises by us will be composted, hence will NOT end in landfill, giving your business/organisation the opportunity to boost your environmental credentials and to reduce your carbon footprints.

SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY: By joining the Cyrenians Food Waste Collection Scheme, you would contribute to support an emerging Social Enterprise which works to better the community by giving the opportunity to disadvantaged people to have work placements and to volunteer with us. Furthermore, all the proceedings would be re-invested in the Social Enterprise, thus generating more opportunities.

REDUCE YOUR GENERAL WASTE AND COSTS: You would see that the general waste disposed of by your business/organisation will decrease as the organic part will be collected separately. This will generate cost savings to you, i.e. less/smaller bins or less frequent collections for general waste.

TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY: The disposal of food and catering waste through composting is still more expensive than sending it to landfill, however it is much more sustainable in the long run!!!

YOUR FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS

Well, now we would like to hear what you think…

What do you think of the pricing of the service?
Would you consider it as an alternative to the current service provided to you?
____________________________________________________________________

Is the range of equipment provided such as wheelie bins, kitchen caddies and bin liners adequate in size and range and suitable to your business / organisation?
How about the terms of the service, i.e. frequency of collections?
____________________________________________________________________

Do you have any concern, comment or suggestion you would like to make?
____________________________________________________________________

we do pay for trade waste but it's just the bin that gets picked up once a week regardless. i suppose you may pay a cheaper rate for once every two weeks but it seems unlikely that the council would be able to manage that.

getting compost picked up is very good.

£16 p/w is quite harsh and, the question goes, are we orginized enough for it?

If we were to go for it, the cost would be an incentive to be organised. Getting people to buy space in our bin is the sort of thing Tom Sawyer would do. I'd pay a pound a week for a shopping bag's worth of compostable rubbish.

Where would we keep a nasty smelling wheelie bin? We don't want people putting their unauthorised crap in it. Can it have a lock on it?

Maybe we could get a proper storage room/space created with the money? I was thinking the space just inside the hall doors, though stuff would probably start getting stinky with only once/week pickup in the summer?

The benefit of the compost pirates taking it away is that it gets used as compost, to produce whatever the Cyrenians produce. If it went into landfill, it would biodegrade, but without helping plants to grow. We produce too much compost for our garden, but still throw away plenty of potential compost, which is a shame.

Yes - the price for this is high, and the potential for flies is there. But these bins might be fly-proof, and we might be able to reduce the cost by subletting space in the bin.

Compostible waste going to landfill is a problem. It does not biodegrade in the desired way, but instead reacts with the other landfill stuff and ends up producing shitloads of methane. It also leads to the production of a liquid called leachate, which can contaminate water supplies. So landfill is not a good place for this stuff .

The main benefit of the proposed system, it seems to me, is that they are claiming to deal with other food waste such as cheese which would not be appropriate in our own heap since it attracts beasts and doesn't break down terribly well if left to it's own devices. How they are doing this I don't know, but I assume they're using the bokashi method or something similar ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokashi ). I guess the other reason for doing it would be to support the Cyrenians in their venture.

Whether or not it is worth the money, I don't know. I suspect not. And I'm dubious about having the stuff on our premises. Shame, because it sounds like they are trying to do something worthwhile.

We only compost a fraction of our food waste because it is in our garden and I am being very careful not to attract pests. In covered storage facilities (which is what I suspect the Cyrenians will have), you can compost anything organic because you have no worry about pests.

Things don't just biodegrade in a landfill Chris. First, there's the problem of the plastic bags we keep this stuff in. There have been studies done where scientists come along and find certain food or nappies or whatever perfectly recognisable fifty years after they've been binned. Also, if you don't divert waste, new landfills will need to be created, and no one seems to want the next one in their backyard.

But most importantly, food waste breaking down at a landfill site creates methane. This is because it breaks down anaerobically, as oxygen cannot circulate properly like it does in 'nature'. A properly maintained compost heap does the job aerobically, producing less harmful CO2. (Incidentally, cattle produce huge amounts of methane via their shit and farts - one of the many reasons meat intensive western diets are bad for global warming).

I agree that the cost is too much for us. That's why I'm trying to think of ways to offset the cost and store the bins properly. I reckon there are enough people like me, who would like to compost that can't, to make this viable if we get the storage problem figured out.

we could be really honest with them and say we think its cool but toomuch. how about we we buy the bin and give them a smaller pick upfee. also i could load a wheelie bin of compost a week into my van and use it as compost for a mere tenner a week. forest supplies the sealed bins. good sealed bins prevent vermin and if well sealed also flies.

not only do we not have enough space to compost all of our biodegradable materials but we don't have enough garden/gardeners to use it.

chris wrote:i think we should pay bill £57 per compost pickup, plus the £4.40 its cost him to drive his van to forest.

xx

i think this is a silly thing to write. when people are volunteering their time you do not suddenly bring cash into the proposal. that why they are volunteers. We should cover his fuel etc that is normal.
i think we should pay kitchen volunteers £6.50 an hour backdated to August 2000. Chris Palmer should be in charge of implementing this...

0 x

Our big brother's got no heart,
when I get my chance I'm going to punch him in the nose, in the nose, in the nose

my above post was a joke, relating to the fact that we are paying for compost pickup at all. and suggesting that we pay Bill (who i think is not proposing to do this for free) more than the Cyrenians (which is obviously absurd, and hence funny, cos their rate is crazy high, at £16.71 per week, so i am suggesting a much higher rate even).

i hate it when i have to explain jokes.

perhaps EUS should send Dan Gormon on a 'how to relax and enjoy jokes' workshop class.

i am not opposed to the compost thing, i was just trying to be funny. maybe i will just delete my account here altogether.

0 x

Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.

hey great. But if the garden had two more bins and some concrete slabs, some manure and a comfrey yarrow and marigold ferment we could compost dead people.
Ish.
But hey Bill i'll help you dig that compost baby.
I k-now easy ways to repell unwanted rodents too.
Eh?!-EH!?
Ummm......Chris was actually quite funny back there, i have to admit it.
It really gets me hot all you guys discussing compost.ooooh.....pleasure.x
So thanks.

Plus we are running out of compost space. Important facet to the jewel.
Can we get another bin? three is the magic numba.x

i said we needed a compost bin extra and now we are not composting at all...?
Ok...i bring in a bin numba 3.
Will forest refund me?
And i will perhaps pull on our compost reserve and make some space...

Gahhh, I am going to sit with the flies and the rats and shake my head and wonder all these years and we have learned nothing...NOTHING! Well, at least it will be a fun chance to see some bloodoo magic.

Good luck compost kids, just remember not to forget all about it and go away on holiday and think that some other volunteers will take care of it, because they never do, and it all ends in tears. And tsetses.

xxxx

0 x

"We all tend to idealise kindness and tolerance, then wonder why we find ourselves infested with losers and nutcases." Sebastian Horsley

Thanks for the warning Jane, but it has been going for about a year and a half now with no mishaps. And I've even left on vacation.

Blue: we have started composting again. Space was made in one of the bins. But yes, a third one would probably be good.

I have someone who will take (reasonable) amounts of finished compost away. A third bin, and a good labelling system, will probably help with this. We were having problems with stuff getting dumped in the bin that was supposed to be full and processing.

that dude who made space is a nightmare.
Who was he?
The Rats love him.....i know i go on about rats and mice but compost with rodent access is so fundamentally wrong.
That guy....should not...touch compost.....